was not possible to keep our tent
up. The pegs would not hold. The hours of the night seemed very long as
we sat tightly wrapped up in our waterproofs, with feet, hands and ears
frozen, and the water dripping down upon us. At dawn there were no signs
of the storm abating. We had not been able to light a fire in the
evening, nor could we light one now, and we were cold, hungry and
miserable. The thermometer had been down to 36 deg.. Towards noon, the rain
still pouring down in torrents and there being no sign of its clearing,
we loaded our yaks and entered the gorge between the snow-covered
mountains. With difficulty we crossed the tributary we had so far
followed, and then proceeded along the right bank of the main stream to
23 deg. 30", then to 25 deg..

[Illustration: CAMP WITH GIGANTIC INSCRIPTION]

We were so exhausted and wet that, when towards evening we came to an
enormous cliff, on the rocky face of which a patient Lama sculptor had
engraved in gigantic letters the everlasting characters, _Omne mani padme
hun_, we halted. The gorge was very narrow here, and we managed to find a
dry spot under a big boulder, but as there was not sufficient room for
all five, the two Shokas went under the shelter of another rock a little
way off. This seemed natural enough, nor could I anticipate any danger,
taking care myself of the weapons and the scientific instruments, while
the Shokas had under their own sheltering boulder the bags containing
nearly all our provisions except tinned meats. The rain pelted all night,
the wind howled, and again we could not light a fire. The thermometer did
not fall below 38 deg., but the cold, owing to our drenched condition, seemed
intense. In fact, we were so frozen that we did not venture to eat, but,
crouching ourselves in the small dry space at our disposal, we eventually
fell fast asleep without tasting food. I slept soundly for the first time
since I had been in Tibet, and it was broad daylight when I woke up, to
find the man Nattoo from Kuti, and Bijesing the Johari, departed from
under their sheltering rock, together with the loads entrusted to them. I
discovered their tracks, half washed away, in the direction from which we
had come the previous night. The rascals had bolted, and there would have
been comparatively little harm in that, if only they had not taken with
them all the stock of provisions for my two Hindoo servants, and a
quantity of good rope, straps, and other miscellaneo